QUICK FACTS
David E. Davis fanfares the 2002 for the US; Quester takes the author for a one-way ride around Brands Hatch
Chapter 12
2002: "Born in the USA"
The versatile 2002 and turbocharged sons in road and race development
With a welcome like that which follows from such a major US motor magazine, you could say that the first BMW to be "born in the USA" was not the 1996 Z3 out of Spartanburg, but a Munich-made 2002 in February 1968. Accounting for almost 400,000 of a total 881,940 of the legendary "02" designs manufactured from March 1966 to July 1977, the 2002 represented a motor marriage proposed by the controversial Max Hoffman, BMW’s New York-based official importer in the 1960s.
Hoffman was criticized for the way he represented BMW in the US, before the factory took over the import operation. But nobody quarreled with the performance logic of BMW’s lightest, sleekest, and latest four-cylinder taking on the 100-horsepower clout of the 1,990-cc slant four. Replacing the 1966 original 1,573 cc at 85 bhp made sales and performance sense.
The result was a road and race driver’s dream: one that handled a stock 100 European bhp to 170 turbo horsepower, or a regular 200 to a freakish 400 race horsepower. The 2002 did it all with a flair that flattered every driver into thinking these moments were the most exhilarating anyone had ever experienced in any form of auto, regardless of price. Here’s what David E. had to say in the Car & Driver Yearbook: "Unrestrained joy, unstinting praise. Turn your hymnals to 2002.
"David E. Davis, Jr. blows his mind on the latest from BMW. A super sedan for those who like to impress themselves and don’t care very much about Kevin Acne and Marvin Sweatsock, and the guy down the block.
"Maybe the neatest part of the whole deal is the fact that the 2002 was originally proposed as a kind of second choice, American anti-smog version of the wailing 1600TI they were selling in Germany, but the second-choice version turns out to be better than the original....If the 1600 was the best $2,500 sedan C/D ever tested, the 2002 is most certainly the best $2,850 sedan in the whole cotton-picking world."
The BMW 2002 formed the bridge between the recovering BMW model range of yesterday and today’s confident, competent, and million-selling 3-series designs. Judging by the number of 1990s keen competitors who still fly the 2002 flag in European and American historic races, driving schools, and autocross/sprint events, the 2002 was the definitive BMW stepping-stone to the automotive hall of fame.
 |
America is truly home to the BMW 2002 cult and the further development of the machine the States dubbed ’Pocket Rocket.’ This quartet of views from the Monterey Historic race meeting at Laguna Seca gives us a small idea of that enthusiasm, along with the superbly turned-out brace of ’02s’ at Lime Rock in a 1989 shoot for the Roundel magazine of the now 40,500-strong BMW CCA.
Jeremy Walton, 1996
Chapter 12, page 162 |
|
 |
America is truly home to the BMW 2002 cult and the further development of the machine the States dubbed ’Pocket Rocket.’ This quartet of views from the Monterey Historic race meeting at Laguna Seca gives us a small idea of that enthusiasm, along with the superbly turned-out brace of ’02s’ at Lime Rock in a 1989 shoot for the Roundel magazine of the now 40,500-strong BMW CCA.
Jeremy Walton, 1996
Chapter 12, page 162 |
|
 |
America is truly home to the BMW 2002 cult and the further development of the machine the States dubbed ’Pocket Rocket.’ This quartet of views from the Monterey Historic race meeting at Laguna Seca gives us a small idea of that enthusiasm, along with the superbly turned-out brace of ’02s’ at Lime Rock in a 1989 shoot for the Roundel magazine of the now 40,500-strong BMW CCA.
Jeremy Walton, 1996
Chapter 12, page 163 |
|
 |
America is truly home to the BMW 2002 cult and the further development of the machine the States dubbed ’Pocket Rocket.’ This quartet of views from the Monterey Historic race meeting at Laguna Seca gives us a small idea of that enthusiasm, along with the superbly turned-out brace of ’02s’ at Lime Rock in a 1989 shoot for the Roundel magazine of the now 40,500-strong BMW CCA.
Jeremy Walton, 1996
Chapter 12, page 163 |
|
 |
Aggressive 2002 turbo in flight. The 170-bhp road version was announced in September 1973. At the introduction, one of the engineering staff recalled that the most they had ever seen from the 2-liter racing turbo of 1969 was 324 bhp! This showroom version of the 2002 was primarily designed to add prestige to the then-aging 2002 line. All BMW factory turbo participation with ’02’ was confined to 1969.
BMW Werkfoto, Germany, 1974
Chapter 12, page 164 |
|
The "Three" undeniably offered more creature comforts--even the fresh-air ventilation that seemed absent in the 2002’s greenhouse--but many hardcore enthusiasts mourned the loss of the adaptable 2002.
Adaptable? Certainly: it was a basic road car with what had become BMW traits (slant four-cylinder engine up front, independent trailing-arm suspension out back), starting life in the showrooms of Germany in March 1966. It was badged 1600-2 with 1,573 cc (84 x 71-mm bore x stroke) and 85 bhp.
The 1600-2 (the "2" or "02" suffix designating two-doors) and 1600Ti of 105-bhp class competition potential occupied the market for nearly two years in Europe before the 2-liter derivative arrived. Then came 1,766 cc (89 x 71 mm) for the LHD (left-hand-drive)-only 1802 and the proven 1,990-cc (89 x 80 mm) 2002 made from January 1968 (a month later for US production).
This single-carburetor 2-liter was followed by the LHD-only twin carburetor 2002TI in Sep
tember 1968. A fuel-injected 2002Tii was sent to the US in two distinct production batches from August 1971 and September 1973. That meant a 1974 model year 2002tii (as the badge read) with squared rear lamps and an official admission of 125 SAE bhp rather than Europe’s tougher DIN-rated 130 bhp.
The Tii debuted at Frankfurt in September 1969, after the competition cars had used Kugelfischer mechanical fuel injection (raced as 2002TI) for the best part of two years. The street 2002Tii utilized a carefully-devised, road-adapted version of the Kugelfischer system, with downstream injection and a single butterfly within a plenum chamber. The European Tii, with its 120-mph (193-km/h) top speed and capability of accelerating from 060 mph in under nine seconds, had a considerably uprated chassis to handle its 130 DIN bhp.
This was quite an advance over the basic 100 bhp DIN (98 SAE for the 197476 US model) offered for 2002 throughout that model’s long Munich manufacturing life. From 1968 to 1976, over 382,740 fully-built "02" examples were created, plus 13,175 made in knockdown (CKD) format for overseas assembly.
Officially, the plain 2002 made 109.2 mph (176 km/h) and accelerated from 062 mph in just over ten seconds, but the US model was rated 105 mph and 12.3 sec for 060 mph.
The 2002 turbo
Toward the end of its series-production life, an ultimate 2002 turbo was made for the street, but its insensitive release in the middle of a European fuel crisis meant that only 1,672 were made between January 1974 and June 1974. By contrast, the 2002TI and Tii were made by the thousands. Some 7,449 of the US-spec Tiis were made from August 1971 to December 1974 alone.
The factory did not use the later street 2002 turbo in competition, despite the ill-timed ballyhoo at its September 1973 introduction which implied that this was BMW’s greatest-ever competition weapon. The 2002 turbo was also falsely billed as, "the world’s first turbocharged production ca," as stated in the authoritative Guinness Book of Car Facts & Feats. It was, however, Europe’s first turbocharged production sedan, beating Porsche and Saab to the production line. America had the Chevrolet Corvair and the Oldsmobile Jetfire earlier.
The 2002 turbo was designed to add interest to a then-aging 2002 range, legitimately trading on a 1969 racing season that had seen BMW engineers debut turbocharging in this category. For production purposes, the familiar slant four was rated at 170 bhp on a 6.9:1 compression ratio, the KKK (Kuhnle, Kopp & Kausch) turbocharger blowing pressurized air into the injection system.
Chassis modifications were extensive and revealed the expertise BMW had learned from competition with the model. A bigger radiator, ventilated ten-inch front discs with four-piston calipers (though drums at the rear were retained on road models), stronger half-shafts, and a ZF limited-slip differential (set at a slack 40 percent pre-load for this application) were included. Rim widths went back into the 1960s in competition terms, with steel rims of only a modest five and a half inches clad in 185/70 HR 13 radials.
Also changed were the gearbox internals, clutch, dampers, and road springs. The turbo boasted a very aggressive exterior, with spoilers and stripes, the optional front-spoiler signage causing howls of protest. It had scripted mirror-image lettering designed to intimidate those goggling into their rearview mirrors as the Bimmer blasted toward them on the autobahn. Since the future of gasoline-engined vehicles was at stake, thanks to the Arab-Israeli confrontation and consequent motoring bans imposed through Europe, BMW couldn’t have picked a worse time to be described as "Bad Boys."
Racing the 2002
All 2002s had very clean lines for such capacious sedans, and this must have helped the fastest 2002 of them all gain a top speed of 131 mph (210 km/h), coupled with 060 mph acceleration quoted at 6.8 seconds.
Despite the commercial and competitive success accrued by this affordable legend, when the factory did compete the 2002, it had a brief official sports career that covered only 1968 and 1969. Since then, it has been beloved of non-factory competitors from Arkansas to Austria.
Von Falkenhausen succinctly outlined the 2002’s factory racing advantages over the earlier Bimmer sedans for the 1968 season: "It was at least 180 kg lighter than the 2000TI we had been racing. It was also lower and was a better car for the aerodynamics--not so big and square!" Remember, the 1800 series was a boxy four-door, while the 2002 was almost a two-door coupe, sold as such in some markets.
Klaus Steinmetz managed the factory race team and had eight mechanics for 1968, when the 2002 competed in the Group 5 category, which allowed the most radical modifications--a complete contrast to the early days of 1800 and 2000. The white 2002s began the season (belatedly, as they had to be legalized for competition first) with carbureted engines, yielding nearly 200 bhp at 7,500 rpm on an 11.0:1 compression ratio.
A Kugelfischer injection system was adopted and proved very satisfactory in providing a wide spread of usable power. The system mechanically injected fuel above the single throttle’s slide. This injection system was retained for the rest of the 2002’s factory-racing life and contributed to an average 205 bhp that would hurl the 2002 to 225 km/h (139.5 mph) through Brno’s Czechoslovakian countryside in street-racing format.
Race drivers being ego-driven monsters, they complain about each other and their mounts, quotably. Quester’s German-language biography is full of scathing commentary on "Kaiser" teammate Hahne and says that, aerodynamically, the 2002 was a silo in comparison to the rival Porsche 911. Yet the Porsche 2+(minimal)2 should never have been allowed in this sedan category anyway, as was shown by a subsequent international ruling.
The complete 2002s weighed 877 kg (1,929 lbs) and were flamboyant, carrying a peculiar set of wheel-arch spats that provided a streamlining downward U-bend before the wheel arch. The FIA banned these and a new-style front arch was introduced for the Nürburgring on July 7, 1968.
Suspension featured predominantly Dutch Koni damping and cast-alloy wheels carrying Dunlops. In this pre-slick-tire era, the road-registered cars carried substantial 4.75/10.00 by 13-inch diameter rubber. High-ratio steering and proper disc brakes were now also specified. Factory BMWs were soon trailered, not road-registered.
The biggest problem of that season and the following one was the Porsche 911 coupe,
 |
The 2-liter single-overhead-camshaft motor for the racing 2002 adopted Kugefischer injection before the double-overhead-camshaft single-seater Formula 2 motors. Despite those long induction trumpets and leading-edge power for the period, the units retained BMW’s hallmark flexibility.
BMW Archiv, reissued 1984
Chapter 12, page 168 |
|
with
its rear-mounted flat six. The Stuttgart factory did not bother to run a full factory team--but they did have some good, reliable, and wealthy privateers to represent them.
The Porsches were a little heavier than the factory BMWs, but they could resort to full twin-plug-per-cylinder Carrera racing versions of their flat-six engine, to wring 230 bhp from their four-cam 2-liters. Also on the scene were the Alfa GTAs (occasionally supercharged) and the Alan Mann Cortinas and Escorts, though these were 1,600s.
The fight was between BMW and the privateer Porsches, for the Alfas were not always present (and even when they were, their handling prevented all but the most competent drivers of the Italian marque from staying in touch with the Teutonic feud).
BMW Rennsport did not make the first March round of the championship that year (1968), but Bernd Henne and Dieter Basche did show the potential of 2002 by taking fifth place overall in the 1600 model at the Monza opener.
The second round on April 7 saw the victorious international and European Championship debut of the factory-prepared 2002 team. The venue was the Aspern airfield course, right on the doorstep of Viennese team driver Dieter Quester. In practice, Quester had to concede first place to Gardner’s Ford time of 1 minute 9.3 seconds, but the BMW squirted and slid around the rough concrete course in 1 minute 10.6 seconds. Munich had closed the gap a great deal on lap times compared with the UK-based opposition. Now it was time to shift up a gear and start to take the initiative.
Quester beat one of the supercharged Alfas and two Porsche 911s at an average of 81.2 mph (130.6 km/h), and his fastest lap around the open track was 83.2 mph (133.8 km/h).
Round three of the European Touring Car Challenge (later a full championship) took the contestants to Snetterton in Norfolk, England, a former USAAF site for the Anglo-American bombing offensives of the 1940s.
BMW entered a trio of fuel-injected 2002s, although one was crashed in testing. Championship rules dictated that a certain number of starters should take the grid before full points would be awarded, so BMW ensured that a privateer brought his very unsuitable car along, and that Dieter Basche lent his road car to one Franz Pesch....
Both of the additional points-gathering 2002s were swiftly retired after the start, but the two factory cars for Quester and Basche practiced and raced competitively. Quester was third quickest in practice (1 minute 47.6 seconds) against Elford’s pole-winning 1 minute 45.8 seconds (in the British-based AFN Porsche 911) and Basche’s 1 minute 50.2 seconds.
The BMWs completed the opening laps in fifth and sixth positions. Then Basche’s exhaust system loosened and Quester got away while battling with Gardner’s Cortina, which was disposed of as the Ford overheated. After 25 laps, Quester was second and Basche had pulled back into fifth place.
After two hours and 20 minutes of racing, Basche lost positions by having a broken engine mounting replaced and Quester went out, as if in sympathy, with a rear transmission failure. Fitness fanatic Quester ran back to the pits and commandeered his teammate’s machine. The BMW rejoined in fifth place and eventually made fourth overall, covering 111 laps, compared to the 115 laps of the winning 4.7-liter Ford Mustang in this 500-km event.
April 21 brought the 2002s a second European championship win, this time over Belgrade’s streets, a four-hour grind around the former Yugoslavian track. Dieter Quester averaged 79.8 mph around the tight track, but more importantly, he beat Porsche entrant Erwin Kremer. There were two other Porsches behind, so BMW grins stretched to Munich and back.
Following a fifth-round cancellation, works BMWs did not appear again until it was time for the home fixture at Nürburgring on July 7. A gargantuan 93-car field actually started this
 |
In the early part of 1968, the factory 2002TI ran with these peculiar alloy wheelarch fairings at the front and more conventional spats at the rear. This is Dieter Basche at Belgrade, Yugoslavia: a street race won by Quester’s sister car. This type of public road racing, without crash barriers, is now a rugged 1960s memory.
BMW Archiv, reproduced 1978
Chapter 12, page 170 |
|
six-hour Grosser Preis von Tourenwagen edition. BMW entered three factory 2002s and employed Quester, Hahne, Basche, Kurt Ahrens, Ernst Furtmayer, and David Hobbs, the Englishman who would be so important to BMW in the US.
Hahne was BMW’s quickest in practice behind two Porsches, completing a 9-minute, 45.9-second lap as compared with his 2000TI record of 9 minutes 58.9 seconds. That is progress, for a 10-minute lap was always a good formula car preserve in the "Good Old Days."
Ben Pon and Helmut Kelleners (Porsches) initially led Hahne, Lucien Bianchi’s supercharged Alfa Romeo, and Quester. Bianchi’s Alfa was one of a positive fleet prepared to try to hold Alfa’s enviable record in the German event. Quester actually drove two of the factory BMWs, but it was Hahne who held the lead, fair and square, while both Porsches were fit.
Kelleners retired his 911, and Pon was later hindered by a slow co-driver and car trouble,
so BMW was able to lay on a magnificent and heartwarming display for its directors and customers. The Hahne/Quester car crossed the line just 0.2 seconds before the Ahrens/ Quester machine in line-ahead order. Five of the next six home were Porsches, so the victory went down doubly well. Incidentally, the third factory 2002 retired with differential failure on the penultimate lap, while in third.
The winning car averaged 84.2 mph (135 km/h) for the 36 laps/511.2 miles they covered, and the fastest lap went to a Porsche at slightly over 88 mph (141 km/h) at 9 minutes 36.6 seconds. To complete a good BMW day, Basche spent some time with Bernd Henne in the latter’s private 1600TI. They won the class, following widespread mechanical malaise among the Alfas, and defeated an Alan Mann Ford driven by Frank Gardner and Dieter Glemser.
BMW missed the 1968 Belgian Francorchamps 24-hour annual, but a private Belgian 2002 driven by Raymond Mathay (subsequently killed in a dreadful, fiery accident at Spa-Francorchamps in the 1970s) and
Rob Derom did pick up sixth overall, fourth
in its class behind the victorious Porsche of Kremer/Kelleners.
A new 8.5-mile street-circuit version of the Brno track in Czechoslovakia was attacked by a trio of factory 2002s for a four-hour event. By this stage, BMW felt the Porsche’s extra straight-line speed (so clearly demonstrated on the faster circuits) was beginning to outweigh both the road-handling and driving advantage that Munich had so effectively employed thus far.
In practice, Porsches were first- and second-fastest: Kelleners/Jurgen Neuhaus zapped to 5 minutes 32.7 seconds against Quester’s third quickest 5 minutes 35.6 seconds. On this occasion, Quester shared with Furtmayer, the second car was driven by Quester and Hahne, and the third by Hahne and Basche--you had to be a genius at musical chairs to run BMW race teams of the 1960s!
BMW suffered all kinds of race ills. A fuel-injection pipe came adrift on one car, Hahne had to drive a mile or so on a puncture, and Furtmayer made a comprehensive job of demolishing the injection-troubled 2002 he shared with Quester. The excitement continued throughout the event, Kremer/Kelleners only winning after pulling back a 19-second lead enjoyed by Quester and passing the car the Austrian BMW driver shared with Hahne two laps from the end. Basche and Hahne were fourth--all in all, a good result.
The rest of the season covered three European championship events, but there were no more outright wins for BMW, despite its impressive reliability. At Zandvoort, Holland, Toine Hezemans took a popular local victory and another Porsche was second, the BMWs coming home in team formation to take third, fourth and fifth overall for Quester, Hahne, and Basche, respectively.
The Eigenthal hillclimb emphasized BMW’s prowess at this branch of the sport: Basche finished second with one Porsche ahead and three behind. The 2002 was outclassed, puffing up hills on four cylinders against privately-owned flat sixes!
Things were tense going into the final round of the series on a then-new Jarama circuit near
 |
Eddie Regan’s Mini gets that BMW blitz effect in Ireland as Alec Poole’s imported road-legal 2002TI whips by on the last corner to win.
Autosport/Elser Crawford, Ireland, May 1969
Chapter 12, page 171 |
|
 |
Still developing. Metalbau Konig panelled some of this BMW Deutschland 02 Club member’s machine (driven by Jurgen Schilling) in aluminium for the 1994 classic event that supported the Nürburgring 24-hours.
Chris Willows, Germany 1994
Chapter 12, page 172 |
|
Madrid, Spain. The Spanish decider on September 22 provided typically torrid heat in which to fight the final battle. BMW commanded that Quester miss the last round of a European hillclimb championship struggle against Porsche to seize this European racing title.
While Porsche and BMW battles dominated the headlines, Englishman John Handley’s Mini Cooper was creeping away to a slight overall lead in the championship. Porsche and BMW totals were very close indeed in the over-1,600-cc Division 3.
The best Porsche was over a second quicker than BMW could manage with three team cars, driven by Quester, Hahne, and Basche. In the race, Helmut Kelleners proved too quick for the Munich trio, finishing nearly one and a half miles ahead after a three-hour struggle. The factory BMWs again managed to finish in order with Quester, Hahne, and Basche in third, fourth, and fifth places, respectively, and Jurgen Neuhaus grasping second for Porsche.
This reliable result still gave BMW Division 3 in the European Championship class, by just
half a point’s lead over Kelleners’ Porsche after a season’s racing. It also meant that Quester was runner-up overall to European Champion John Handley in the Mini Cooper, but BMW could claim the class.
In 11 rounds, Porsche won six, factory BMWs three, Gardner in the Ford Escort one, and a private Mustang one. BMW’s finishing record and tally of places was marvelous. It was a great example of factory finesse--making the best of a four-cylinder sedan car that was not quite a match for the opposition, a reputable six-cylinder GT. Munich took three second places, two thirds, four fourths, and two fifths.
Looking back over that first 2002 season, Quester said: "This car was so much better than the big old 1800 and 2000. We had the wider wheels, and we could adjust the suspension a little, using the roll bars at the front and back. The car still oversteered, but it was much easier to control...and quite fast in a straight line with the fuel-injected engine."
Racing for US glory: 1968-78
In America, the 2002 was fighting Alfa GTVs and BRE-prepared Nissan 510s to spread the BMW word. Gregory Racing, supported by US importer Max Hoffman, ran a two-car team of 2002s in the professional Trans Am ranks from 1968-72. These snorting double-carburetor cars still exist, thanks to the racing stewardship of Rug (not Reg, as my British printers used to insist!) Cunningham.
BMW dealer and racer Cunningham has a soft spot for the 2002 racers, born of a ten-race winning sequence in 1975’s SCCA Southern Pacific region. Another Trans Am regular team driver was Carl Fredericks.
The team 2002s seem preserved in authentic 200-bhp, five-speed gearbox, 130-plus-mph trim--not so fast as some later turbo interpretations that ran in the same sessions at Monterey 1996, but absolutely great to watch. Since Monterey 1988, Cunningham has been plucking prizes for the preserved Trans Am period pieces, which won the BMW Cup for the company-backed Vintage Fall Festival, Lime Rock, 1990.
I was fortunate to see these 2002s in action at Monterey in 1996 and just wish we had preserved some of our top-line European racing sedans so authentically. They look like work-
 |
Keeping the faith. American 2002s at work on the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca include the number 35 ex-Trans Am car as fielded by the Rug Cunningham team.
Author’s archives, released 1978; Klaus Schnitzer; released 1996, US
Chapter 12, page 166 |
|
 |
Nick Craw did a good job with the Miller & Norburn 2002 in American production-car racing during the mid-1970s, taking national titles against factory opposition from the big American Motors compacts, among others. Although he set winning records for driver achievement in the US, Craw (pictured in our inset) was subsequently better-known for his helmsmanship of the world’s biggest competition auto club, SCCA.
Author’s archives, released 1978; Klaus Schnitzer; released 1996, US
Chapter 12, page 167 |
|
ing racers, not pampered concours contestants. It was a rare pleasure to see them entertain the crowds alongside the bellowing Mustang-versus-Camaro wars--just as bitterly fought in 1996 as they were in the 1960s and 1970s.
One of the earliest successful privateer attacks came from subsequent SCCA President Nick Craw. Initially a single-seater professional--he drove for the rated Fred Opert Racing Team in the US, Mexico, Canada, and the UK--Craw found his place in BMW history for 1973. That season, he teamed up with Miller & Norburn and their 2002 production racer.
Big bumpers and all, Craw and the 02 proved too good for the opposition, winning his debut sedan season and the Goodrich Radial Challenge Driver’s Championship. As a BMW
2002 driver, he won more races than any rival in the BF Goodrich series and was elected to both the Road Racing Drivers Club and All-American Racing Drivers Team.
Kermit R. Upton III was bred to speed-ski in his home state of Vermont, but switched to the automobile business in 1978, when he established Mountain Auto Sport. The aggressive skills he had displayed for the US ski team were transferred to racing, earning eight wins and three regional titles for his Mountain Auto Racing Team in his first 15 races!
Upton continued racing over the next decade, attracting Budweiser support for a Chevrolet Camaro before acquiring an M3 in 1989, which he raced on into the 1990s.
The 2002Tii gets a press run
January 1969: while the factory was tackling the problem of turbocharging the 2002, von Falkenhausen, Quester, and Hahne visited England to give journalists a taste of life inside a 1968 Group 5 2002Tii. The venue was a cold and greasy Brands Hatch Club circuit and the "demonstration car" was white with red frontal panels to distinguish it from the other team cars (which had blue as one alternative).
I remember it well: I was 22, and "one of the invited."
The factory race 2002 stood over to one side of the start-and-finish line between runs, and I found it fascinating. The great squares of aluminum paneling riveted onto the main body extended out over the multi-spoke alloy wheels, which emphasized the low-set, wide body of this aggressive machine.
Today, it would look nude since the spoilers were absent, but then, we were all gawking at the amount of negative camber displayed. As the wheel and tire took the load on an independent suspension, it would be gradually forced to a vertical stance, planting the full tire-tread width on the ground and increasing adhesion.
My ride with Quester was notable for the many qualities of the road 2002 that were retained in the racing version. The ride over bumps was remarkable, and one sat in some comfort on the right of this fully trimmed LHD machine--fully trimmed, that is, until a famous journalist tore out the standard armrest as he tried to avoid landing in Quester’s lap!
The compression ratio at that wintry Brands ride and drive was quoted at 10.5:1 for the injected engine, which retained much of the standard spread of power. Quester started by showing that there was clean power from 3,500 rpm.
Exiting slow corners such as Druids Hairpin (where it clambered over the curb), the amount of oversteer opposite lock that could be applied without the tail actually taking command of the alert Austrian driver’s reflexes was memorable.
The car was not noisy, but as it rushed towards the paddock in the fourth of its five Getrag ratios, I do remember thinking that Quester’s brain had fallen out. I was convinced that he was going to take me with him to that big BMW scrapyard in the sky. It was all routine to Quester and the competition 2002--the four-wheel disc brakes (the fronts inherited from the 2000TI) killed the speed without wheel lock on the slimy surface.
It was a memorable experience, an exhilarating step toward becoming the odd man out at British media centers--the Munich supporter in the days of British MiniMania.
End of excerpt
©2002 Robert Bentley, Inc. We encourage visitors to link to this page if you’d like to share this information with others. Please do not copy this excerpt to other web sites. It is protected by copyright and represents significant resource investment by Bentley Publishers.
|
![[B] Bentley Publishers](http://www.bentleypublishers.com/images/bentley-logos/bp-banner-234x60-bookblue.jpg)
Cart